


Enlightenment

by kemtai_manko



Category: Sector General - James White
Genre: Gen, Minor Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-27
Updated: 2016-04-27
Packaged: 2018-06-04 19:08:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 523
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6671569
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kemtai_manko/pseuds/kemtai_manko
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An alternate ending to the story begun in the novel Mind Changer.  </p>
<p>Some Kelgians aren't as accepting of the inhabitants of the Retreat as we might assume.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Enlightenment

“Enlightened” Kelgia. 

O’Mara’s been guilty of saying it himself, sometimes.  So enlightened.  So modern.  So wise.

But there are some things “enlightened” beings don’t do.

They don’t end the career of one of their most promising young doctors because of a simple lab accident.   

They don’t lock the physically deformed away in Retreats, so those with functional fur wouldn’t have to dirty their precious eyes looking upon those less fortunate. 

And, O'Mara thought, they certainly don’t do _this_.

 

~ * ~ * ~

 

He’d set up a news alert for the Retreat she lived in years ago, as well as the rural Kelgian town that contained it.  O’Mara wasn’t sure exactly why, or what he was ever expecting to hear.  The village supplied the occasional news story – felines in unfortunate arboreal situations, that sort of thing – but the Retreat itself, never.  Until today. 

It came up on his personal console during a Psychology staff meeting.  Cha Thrat had been prattling on about the newest crop of trainees, and the issues they could expect from them.  He happened to glance at the console out of boredom, and caught the words in passing.

_Karnneth Memorial Retreat._

_Explosions.  Fire._

_Arson._

_Pre-meditated attacks._

_No survivors._

No survivors.  His eyes stuck on those words, far longer than it took to read them.  They rang through his head, over and over.   Cha Thrat was still talking, but he had no hope of focusing on that anymore.

Marrasarah, the only being he’d ever truly loved, was gone.

_Enlightened, my ass_ , thought O’Mara.

 

~ * ~ * ~

 

A large part of him raged against Fate or God or whoever else was in charge.   The most bitter, pettiest part wondered why he’d bothered putting so much effort into developing the tele-consulting line the Retreat had operated.  

But mostly, he mourned.  He mourned for the fifty-odd lost residents of the Retreat, Kelgians who had done nothing wrong beyond having immobile fur.  He mourned the staff – overworked, minimal budget, in an occupation that grants them no respect – who always made him feel welcome nonetheless.   

And then there was her.

He’d planned on going to live on Kelgia after retiring from Sector General.  He’d planned to spend out their lives together, mind partner and mind partner.  He’d rehearsed so many times in his head what he’d say as he made the impression of his Earth-human mind upon hers.  Now, he lay on the mind tape couch himself.  Alone.   

Preparing for erasure. 

He put the familiar helmet on.  Her tape had been withdrawn from circulation so long ago that there was no going back.  One flick of a switch, and it would be over - forever.

His hand hovered there for a long time.  He couldn’t do it.  He couldn’t lose what little he had left of her.  

Neither of them was a particularly religious sort, but he found himself praying that she could hear him from the faraway Kelgian afterlife – hear him say the words he’d been so sure he’d one day say to her:

“ _It will be a true marriage of minds.  I have known and will always know you in that way, Marrasarah, and I want you to know me.  Please say yes…_ ”

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> The planet being "enlightened Kelgia" is a direct quote from Mind Changer. So is the last line.
> 
> Please comment!


End file.
